This invention relates to a meat tenderizing apparatus in which long slender knives are reciprocated into and out of meat that is transported in intermittent movement through the apparatus and with the blades of the knives being arranged in a particular relationship to each other so as to sever into relatively short lengths all of the meat toughening elements including fibers, gristle and the like.
In addition to U.S. Pat. No. 3,736,623 which covers apparatus for tenderizing both boneless and bone-in meat in which the blades are arranged sloped to the direction of movement of the meat so as to cut all fibers, Ross U.S. Pat. No. 3,535,734 is also concerned with this problem except in this patent the knives are in two sets at right angles to each other and means are provided for shifting the conveyor and thereby the meat laterally of the set of knives. The apparatus of the present invention provides a simpler, less expensive and more satisfactory way in which the knives themselves are arranged so that the blades in the assembly cover all portions of the meat regardless of how the meat is oriented relative to the knives and thus to the direction of movement of the conveyor.